Warren Diggles Photography and Design

This post highlights a CSS Only Drop Down Menu that was modified for Photoshelter from Superfish CSS Drop Down Menu for Joomla!. The reason to use a CSS only menu is that for security reasons Photoshelter (Photography Websites), does not allow scripting to be imported into their templates. This is why a CSS only menu solution is the best solution for Photoshelter customization. Not only does a CSS only drop down menu work with Photoshelter, but it is faster than other web menu methods, and all the while contributing excellent SEO to your website.

Here are some links to working examples:
CSS Only Drop Down Menu Code
Colorado Stock Photography
Stock Photography of Western Canada

Here is a working example of SuperFish for Joomla! menu:
The Best Colon Cleanse Ever Made! - Original Joomla! Superfish component customized with rounded corners

Me with some of the familiar faces of Photoshelter
(Rachel, Me, Allen, Grover and Andrew - Photo by Mellissa Diggles)

If you have read my blog before you will know that I am a big fan of Photoshelter. If you are not familiar with Photoshelter, they are the place on the web where photographers get seen and sell their work. It is my opinion that Photoshelter provides photographers with the most complete set of tools available to maximize the benefits of the web. With my Photoshelter customization website northerncoloradostock.com, I am able to set up a searchable archive for my stock images, provide traditional customers with access to their images via the web, offer online order fulfillment, and seamlessly integrate all of this with my existing portfolio website and blog.

While on a family trip to the east coast for our niece’s wedding I took the opportunity to visit the hub, the center, the heart of Photoshelter. When we got to Union Square where Photoshelter is located we noticed that a commercial photoshoot was going on, very cool, I thought that Photoshelter was behind it so I looked around a bit but came to the conclusion that they weren’t - the funny thing is that when looking at Photoshelter’s blog today there is a post about it - you can read about it on A Picture’s Worth.

Anyway, we found the building located at 33 Union Square West and headed on up to the second floor. When the elevator opened I saw the Photoshelter logo and knew we were in the right place. First I want to mention how friendly everyone is and how my family and I felt very welcome. After introductions and a brief tour I talked a bit with Allen and Andrew about marketing a photography website. They shared with me some of their insights and let me know they are getting close to unveiling the next set of PSA upgrades - can’t wait to see exactly what they are…

What I gathered from my visit reinforces what I already know, Photoshelter is about photographers. A company that is continuously providing us with web based infrastructure, effective web marketing tools and the knowledge to utilize both with the free SEO resources of sites such as Google, Twitter, Facebook and whatever comes next.

Thank you again Photoshelter for your hospitality. Allen, my family agrees, the pizza at Patsy’s is delicious!

Advertising Photography Questions (including answers)

Thank you Jaak for question #1

Jaak Writes

Hi Warren,

…What words are better to use for gallery description and gallery name. Stock photos, stock images, stock pictures or stock photography. I understood about your research that images is not the best solution. But I have seen a sites in Google like it http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np.grand-canyon.html if I wrote grand canyon stock photos. You can see in gallery description words like pictures and stock photos too. What do you think. Do you have any idea for best solution… There is a lot of other factors for good SEO too what we should to use. By the way do you have had some success with good SEO ranking. I mean does any photo buyer found your stock images thanks to your good ranking. There is philosophical question for me. I think that serious photo buyer use a stock image banks like Getty, Alamy only. So a SEO is not important for them. SEO is important for people who do not know about image banks. My conclusion is that some not serious picture buyer will found our images thanks for good ranking, but they do not pay money for pictures. I hope that I am not right….

Sorry about my english

All the best,
Jaak Nilson

–
Jaak Nilson Photostock
Phone: +372 502 6327
www.jaaknilson.ee

Response

Hello Jaak,

Just ran a few terms through Google Adwords Keyword Tool and these are the average worldwide search totals/month:
stock images - 165,000
stock photos - 550,000
stock pictures - 22,200
stock photography - 201,000

stock photos is the most popular, but photography and images are searched a lot too. My thoughts would be to have images, photos and photography in your seo. I use “stock photo image” in my page titles - iptc headlines for images. Because my site name is Northern Colorado Stock Photography then I have “stock photo image and photography” all in the page titles. For my filenames I am putting a descriptive term with the file # name. ie A8EW0225-Chocolate-Milk-Glass-Bottle.jpg this way your filename numbers are not messed up and you have a descriptive name in the title. Still a work in progress though, I don’t have quite half of the images ready yet.

So far I have not had great success through Photoshelter with SEO, but I know that what they are saying to do is good SEO and I believe that Photoshelter will continue to improve on their end so I am integrating their recommendations into my site.

Hopefully this helps,
Warren

–

Warren Diggles Photography & Design
www.warrendiggles.com
(970)412-0583

/***These are actual emails that have been copied and pasted***/

{Edit 3/30/09}
Since FaceBook changed their interface my screen shots do not match the current FB website, and my new to me now old FB Fanpage looks a bit drab with the new FB interface. OK my first opinion is they are on the right track and I guess it is time to update the branding on my FB Fan Page. This is something that has just been put on the list of things to do…

Embedding a Photoshelter Flash Gallery to your Fan Page still works the same way, FaceBook just changed their interface so it will appear different.

More coming soon…er or later
{/Edit}

Photography and Marketing Facebook Fan Page - click link to see a Photoshelter flash gallery embedded to Facebook fan page and by all means become a Fan!

Before you can add a Photoshelter flash gallery to a Facebook fan page you need to install » More info embed Photoshelter flash gallery to Facebook fan page...

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
Photo by Pete Souza

Do you have an upcoming marketing project that needs classic wedding imagery? These stock photography images taken at the historic Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado are our latest release. Now available for Rights Managed licensing from www.northerncoloradostock.com, the wedding day images in this gallery are color, b&w, and sepia scans of 645 and 35mm negatives - classic Kodak black and white and Fuji color negative film. If you would like to use this gallery in your web page or blog for free, » More Classic Wedding Images

When you meet Paul and Brenda of Province Building you will be instantly impressed with their ‘can do’ attitude and friendly personality.

With multiple developments to manage, homes to build and homeowners to keep happy it is no wonder that Province Building relies on our smart and creative marketing solutions to communicate their message. Province Building supplies the ideas and inspiration then we put in the hours needed to fulfill their vision and get projects done.

Just take a look at this northern Colorado home at Harmony Club, wide open floor plan located on the golf course next to a lake…a moment please…last week I was happy to photograph this home for Province, Inc. By the way, this home is for sale! Contact Robin Strong through www.provincebuilding.com for details.

The images in this gallery were taken with a Canon 1ds, 24mm and 45mm T/S Lenses (shameless google plug will see if someone finds this post by searching for Canon T/S architectural camera lenses).

Official FREE Beeyond the Hive and Warren Diggles Photography “None of your Beeswax” image.

Embed this photo on your website or blog for FREE, click the arrow on the right to get the link information and embed this image on your website or blog. Courtesy of Beeyond the Hive and Warren Diggles Photography. This is the only version of this image that is available for free for any other use click on the image for details.

“Warren Diggles decided to “dig” into his customization and came up with a very different look. He also set up a CNAME so that he could use his own domain instead of PhotoShelter.com.” - By Allen Murabayashi A Pictures Worth Blog

Today, Photoshelter (The online storefront and archive for serious photographers) posted a story on A Picture’s Worth blog promoting PSA Site Customization. And they were kind enough to include the Photoshelter website customization of our website! For an example of what seamless customization compare how my current website warrendiggles.com compares with Photoshelter’s online storefront tools northerncoloradostock.com!

If your company currently uses third party tools to add functionality to your website, contact us and we can explore the possibility of seamlessly customizing these features to your company’s online presence.

Photoshelter seamless website customization is a tool for photographers to create a custom website store “facade” or “skin” that will flow seamlessly with your current website architecture and design, or you can create a standalone website complete with a storefront for accepting online orders.

Being lucky enough to live at the gateway to the Rocky Mountains opens up many great opportunities for photography. Enjoy this gallery of images from The Colorado Rocky Mountains, you can even add it to your website or blog for free. Simply click the arrow on the bottom-right and copy the code to place in your website or blog. To purchase an image simply click on the picture you like and it will take you to www.northerncoloradostock.com where you can buy Archival Limited Edition Photographic Art Prints, Canvas Gallery Wraps, or even license the full size digital file for marketing, editorial and personal uses.